Sometimes he would grab a broom or any stick when he was allowed out to a football field in prison and simulate a swing or draw a putt, recently told Golf Digest in an extensive interview Ángel Cabrera, the Duck. He has now returned to competition after 30 months, two and a half years, behind bars, the first six in a prison in Rio de Janeiro, then, already in Argentina, in the Bouwer prison (Córdoba) and finally in the Colonia Abierta Monte Cristo, where he carried out agricultural and livestock activities until he served two thirds of the sentence and was released on parole. He served several sentences for gender violence until last August 4 after being arrested as a fugitive in Brazil and 25 days after his release he returned to competition at the El Terrón Golf Club in Mendiolaza, where the Litoral Open was held last week, where he finished in a notable tenth place with -11. The amateur Joaquín Ludueña won in the playoff against Alejandro Tosti.
But the focus was on the Duck. The 54-year-old player, who had to sleep on the concrete floor on many occasions during his captivity, was blunt when he spoke to the newspaper La Nación: “We can talk about golf all you want, the rest you already know”. The winner of the 2007 US Open and the 2009 Masters recorded rounds of 71-66-67-69 in his first tournament since he played the PGA Tour Champions in 2020.
In Bouwer, well-behaved inmates were allowed two-hour visits with their partners every 15 days. In November 2022, Yamila Álvarez, his partner for four years, gave birth to their son. They got married two months after his release. “The arrival of Felipe helped a lot”, Cabrera affirmed and added that becoming a father again “makes me stronger, want to improve, to be there for him and help him grow and become a good person”.
“I no longer look for culprits. While I was detained, I realized that if I was still free and had behaved as I had, I probably wouldn’t be alive. There were nights when I stayed in my cell thanking God for my imprisonment. What I had been doing was madness”, he said. “I did all this to myself. But it’s done. I can’t erase how I acted. The only thing I can do is move on and do something different”, the Duck confessed to Golf Digest, noting that during his last six months in prison he was alone after his cellmate was released and read old golf magazines with articles about himself. “It made me nostalgic, but it helped me pass the time”, he pointed out. “I remember almost every shot from that Sunday when I won the Masters and I repeated them in my mind: the playoff, the famous shot I made between the trees…”. Golf as therapy.
“I thought about coming back all the time I was in prison”, he said. “My goal is to prepare and play the Champions Tour. Golf is everything to me. It’s my life. I have to continue”, says the Argentine. Today he is embarked on a stage of reconstruction in all areas. Beyond the emotional and affective, the work: “Soon I will go to the United States Embassy to see if they renew my visa; I have it valid, but it expires in March. If they renew it, I already set up the calendar to start the Champions Tour and combine it with the European circuit, where luckily they have already enabled me to play; that makes me more calm”, he describes to La Nación. Will he be able to play the Masters again, where he has a lifetime place because of his champion status? The Augusta National reserves the right to invite whoever it wants. Unaware of these circumstances, which no longer depend on him, Cabrera comments: “Of course I want to be at the Masters. I want to play everything I can on the calendar, I’m very eager”, he reveals.
A week ago, at a meeting in Palm Springs, executives from the PGA Tour and the Korn Ferry asked leaders of the Argentine Golf Association about Cabrera, but more than anything from the human plane, outside of sports. They will have to determine if the player can return to the Champions Tour after evaluating the legal documentation and assessing whether he is in a position to become a member again.
At the Litoral Open, his close friend Ricardo González, his contemporary and host of the tournament, who did not take part in the tournament due to a contracture, did not leave him. On his return to normal life, he was greeted by old colleagues: “I received messages from Ernie Els, from Retief Goosen, from Rory Sabbatini, from Nick Price, from Gary Player, who sent me a letter. From many people who know me. The truth is that it makes me very happy and gives me a lot of strength to continue for what is coming. I’m in good spirits”. The Duck has resurrected and wants to do what he does best: play golf.
